OTHER VOICES Emission standards

Walk outside, look at the sky and take a deep breath. The air right now across much of Southern California, the country and even the world is sparklingly clear and clean compared with just a few weeks ago. The change is especially noticeable in cities that are normally choked by vehicle exhaust, like Los Angeles. What’s more, it’s not just the smog, but also the greenhouse gas emissions fueling global climate change that have decreased with the temporary slowdown in burning fossil fuels.

The reason, of course, is that driving, flying, travel of almost all sorts and the economy in general have ground to a near halt in an attempt to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. But it shouldn’t take a pandemic to show people what a future with clean air, blue skies and a healthy planet could look like. This could be a sustainable reality if countries committed to clean industries, clean energy and, especially, clean vehicles.

So, it’s especially galling that the Trump administration chose this very moment to roll back the United States’ most important program to cut automobile pollution and fight climate change. On Tuesday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation released new rules relaxing Obama-era fuel efficiency standards for passenger cars and light trucks.

The rule significantly weakens the standards adopted in 2012 as part of the federal government’s bailout of the financially troubled auto industry. The original standards called for automakers to increase fuel economy across their fleets by about 5% per year, reaching an average of 54 mpg by 2025. Automakers were expected to meet the target by developing more hybrid and electric models, gradually cutting smoggy tailpipe pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in the process.